> It's very much a second-class flavor of open source. They dare not> change the kernel version lest the binary-only trainwreck explode.> They dare not run with the whiz-bang patches going around they're> interested in lest the binary-only trainwreck explode. It may oops> in mainline, and all they can do is wait for a tech support line to> answer. Well, they're a little better than that, they have hackers> out and about, but you're still stuck waiting for a specific small> set of individuals and lose all of the "many eyes" advantages.

On the flip side, if I go back as far as 2.5.4<mumble>, I've had a lot moredays where the open-source drivers for my Xircom ethernet/modem card werebroken than days where my binary NVidia driver was broken. Also, the Xircomhas been the cause of a lot more "hang before even single user mode" problems,and several times the Xircom didn't start working again until there was acomplete overhaul of the Cardbus support, while there's not been that muchactivity on the NVidia patch on www.minion.de.

It's certainly seemed like I've ended up "stuck waiting for a specificsmall set of individuals" when the Cardbus support has broken (not toslight them, they're all great guys and do support the stuff) - how manypeople on this list *really* understand that code? And it's not justthe Cardbus stuff - there's a LOT of stuff in the kernel that's onlyreally understood by a very small number of people.